VOA常速英语2018--树农推荐美国家庭使用圣诞真树 而非人造树

For some families like the Villa¹ Reals, there’s no substitute for a live Christmas tree. Just you know, watering it every day and just that smell, especially the smell of it in our home, just made it feel more Christmassy to us. But that Christmassy smell can’t compete with convenience, says Denise Shackleton who bought real trees for years before switching to an artificial one. It was just too much work to put the real tree on my car, get it into the house, all of that. It’s totally for convenience.

对于像维拉瑞尔的一些家庭来说，鲜活的圣诞树是无可取代的。要知道，每天给圣诞树浇水时，那个味道，尤其是那个味道充盈家里的感觉，让我们感受到更加浓郁的圣诞气息。但这种圣诞气息还是敌不过便捷性，丹尼斯·沙克尔顿如是说道。她本人多年来一直买的都是真树，后来却转向了人造树。把真树放在车里，然后运到家里这些事情，是在太费劲了。人造树更便捷。

It’s estimated that between 75 and 80 percent of Americans who have a Christmas tree now have an artificial one, and the one billion-dollar market for fake trees is growing at about 4 percent a year, even though they can be reused again and again, and that’s bad news for the nearly 15,000 US farmers growing Christmas trees, including fourth-generation tree farmer Casey Grogan. This end over here was Nordmann fir... He says that even though 25 to 30 million trees are sold each year, he has watched about half the fellow tree farmers around him go out of business in the past decade. We’re an industry that would like to remain to be here and be around, and if everybody buys an artificial tree, we’re not going to be here.

据估测，75%-80%的美国人用的圣诞树都是人造的，市值10亿美元的人造圣诞树市场年增长率达到近4%，虽然人造树是可以重复利用的。这对于近1.5万名种植圣诞树的美国农民来说是个坏消息。其中就包括祖上4代都种植圣诞树的凯思·格如根。这边尽头是诺德曼冷杉……他表示，虽然圣诞树的年销售量达2500-3000万棵，但过去10年中，他见证了近半数身边的树农都歇业了。我们这个行业希望能够留在这里，为大家服务。但如果每个人都买人造树，我们就没有存在的必要了。

To encourage young families to start a real tree tradition, the Christmas tree promotion² board launched a social media campaign this year with short movies on Instagram and Facebook. Following real families as they hunt for the perfect tree, You like this one. Cut it down and decorate it. An evergreen³ seedling⁴ takes 8 to 10 years to grow to maturity⁵, and while it’s difficult to predict demand a decade out. Tree farmers hope the enthusiasm for their harvest will grow as well, and more American families will make real Christmas memories with a real tree.

为了鼓励年轻家庭们开启买真树的圣诞节传统，圣诞树推广委员会今年发起了一个社交媒体活动，并在Ins和脸书上发布了一些短视频，拍摄了一些真实家庭拥抱完美圣诞树的场景：你喜欢这一棵圣诞树，就可以砍下来做装饰。一棵常绿的幼苗需要8-10年的时间才能长成，虽然很难预测10年后的需求如何。树农们希望大家对圣诞树丰收的热情能够更高涨一些，也希望更多的美国家庭能够用真树来装点圣诞节的回忆。

1 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

2 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

3 evergreen   

n.常青树；adj.四季常青的

参考例句：

• Some trees are evergreen;they are called evergreen.有的树是常青的，被叫做常青树。
• There is a small evergreen shrub on the hillside.山腰上有一小块常绿灌木丛。

4 seedling   

n.秧苗，树苗

参考例句：

• She cut down the seedling with one chop.她一刀就把小苗砍倒了。
• The seedling are coming up full and green.苗长得茁壮碧绿。

5 maturity   

n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期

参考例句：

• These plants ought to reach maturity after five years.这些植物五年后就该长成了。
• This is the period at which the body attains maturity.这是身体发育成熟的时期。